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Making of the Labyrinth
“Labyrinth” is a fun movie made in 1986 starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly,
and produced by Jim Henson. It is one of my son’s favorites (he has memorized almost
all the words and can impersonate all the characters) and mine, too. “Labyrinth”
was made during a “simpler” time, when puppets were still magical, daydreaming wasn’t
frowned upon, and computer graphics hadn’t quite hit the movie-making scene.
Rock singer David Bowie stars as the Goblin King Jareth. He also wrote and performed
all the songs. Jareth kidnaps Toby, the step-brother of young Sarah, played by Jennifer
Connelly. Sarah makes a wish that the goblins would take her baby brother away,
then is shocked when they really do! She has thirteen hours to get through the Labyrinth
to find her baby brother before he becomes a goblin himself. It’s a movie worth
owning, as you will want to watch it time and again.
In the early 90’s, I did a painting of Jareth. When I look at it now, I cringe at
how primitive my skills were back then, although at the time, I thought it was pretty
good. After giving the painting away to a friend of my son’s, he became upset, so
I promised him I’d do a new painting. “Will it be better?” he asked. “Of course,”
I reassured. He turned to his friend, “Ha, ha, mine’s gonna’ be better than yours!”
And so began the creation of one of my most detailed paintings to date.
So far, I have invested over 60 hours into the 24” x 48” painting, and I still have
several more characters to complete. I designed the background using two scenes
from the movie: the left side is modeled from a scene after a famous M.C. Escher
drawing; it then blends into the right side, which is the Labyrinth itself. I have
superimposed several characters overtop in a somewhat mosaic pattern: Hoggle, one
of the goblins, Wise Man and his bird hat, Toby, Sarah, Ludo, Sir Didymus, a Fiery,
and Jareth.
Stay tuned for the completion of this fabulous masterpiece!
Click here to step-by-step details on my facebook page.
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